Iraqi challenges include spillover of violence from Syria: UN envoy

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-3-22 11:13:20

Martin Kobler, UN secretary- general's special representative for Iraq, said here Thursday that the Iraqis face a complex set of interrelated problems including a spillover of violence from Syria, a country which has been plunged into a two-year crisis and violence.

These challenges, compounded with the potential spillover of violence from the conflict in Syria, threatened Iraq's achievements in the last decade, Kobler said while briefing the UN Security Council at an open meeting on the situation in Iraq.

Iraq currently hosts nearly 120,000 Syrians, who have fled there seeking safety and humanitarian assistance. Most of them are currently located in the Kurdistan region, and an average of 800 people enter the country on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, Kobler added that since late December, tens of thousands of demonstrators in Iraq's western provinces have taken to the streets to voice their grievances on human rights and access to basic services.

According to Kobler, acts of terrorism from November last year to the end of February this year have claimed the lives of almost 1,300 civilians, with more than 3,000 Iraqis being wounded.

"Terrorists seek to ignite sectarian conflict and turn the clock back on Iraq's nascent stability," Kobler said. "I have condemned these acts in the strongest possible terms. I have called on all of Iraq's leaders and religious authorities to rise as one to stop the bleeding."





Posted in: Mid-East

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